GUI themes

~sciocont wrote:

I'm not saying simple is bad, I'm just saying it's simple.

Ok, sorry, I misunderstood!

Heres my little imagining of what the main menu should look like.

Spoiler:

All good, generally... Both would work.

Caekdaemon, where did you get that logo? The cog and planet parts of the logo are reversed, and it would really work with the planet in the background if the light-cast-on-planet part of the logo was on top of the light-cast-on-planet in the background. I like the concept, though, it looks good and works well.

And Andry, that is also a nice, simple menu we could use... It's going to be a tough choice to decide between all these great menu ideas we're getting. And should the TLC button say TCL for Thrive Content Library? It'd be good to be able to access it from the menu, though. Hoping, of course, we can put the TCL in the game, and not restricted to the forums.

And it seems the forum background is a popular image. Well done... Wait, who made it? Ooh, Scio's the lucky one who made it, well done for that piece of art, too, Sciocont!

Well, the forum BG is basicaly just a universal background for this. I wouldn't use it in the game.
And I do have a .svg of the logo, so it will never look that blurry and pixelated in anything official.
Yes, TLC should be TCL.

The Uteen wrote:

Caekdaemon, where did you get that logo? The cog and planet parts of the logo are reversed, and it would really work with the planet in the background if the light-cast-on-planet part of the logo was on top of the light-cast-on-planet in the background. I like the concept, though, it looks good and works well.

I did it myself, as I always thought the Thrive logo looked like a planet.

I was going to enhance the blocks and make them a underlining effect on the title thing, but could never make it look right.

Im not sure how to use attachments, otherwise I would have put a copy here.

I'm sorry, Andry, but if there is a concept I would go with, it would be the Caekdaemon's one. Yours is a little too simple. Good work nonetheless.

Caek, your concept looks great. The bottom few menu buttons seem to be too far from the planet, but otherwise's it's good.

I think they should combine the concepts and add a different background

I don't think either of these fit the shatter theme well enough. Sorry.

US_of_Alaska wrote:

I don't think either of these fit the shatter theme well enough. Sorry.

QFT

Tenebrarum wrote:

US_of_Alaska wrote:

I don't think either of these fit the shatter theme well enough. Sorry.

QFT

I'm so touched that this is an almost official art direction.

Tried a mock up of the current GUI ideas and placed it over a photo (Well some combined photos) I took with a digital microscope

Spoiler:

The cursor is that little glowing green ball hovering offer the left node, which displays tips and goals when clicked.

The round 'egg' (At 56%) shows how far through the generation you are. When it reaches 100% you can mate with another of your species.

Clicking on the node in the center of that ring in the bottom middle will pop up a display of all your stats, history etc.

That big ugly arthropod is you (zoomed up close).
Well its actually a mosquito larvae. And I am sad to say that he was [accidentally] harmed in the making of this image. Sorry Squito
Anyway, he will follow the cursor when you click and hold, pretty much like spores cell stage, but at this point the camera is more or less 3D, scrolling the mouse makes him dive, and the blurry plant material in the background will come into focus. The purplish organism in the bottom left is a potential food source. There is also plant material there too for herbivores. I'm not really sure what mosquito larva eat

The Health (77%) and Energy (36%) bars are to the right, and will change transparency depending on how full they are. Energy will decay at a constant rate and will accelerate in decay during energy intense actions (Flying, running, jumping, fighting, biting, digging, etc). It will increase when energy is gained (Food, Light for plants, Heat for thermosynthetics etc)
When the Energy bar is empty, The health bar will begin to decay at a constant rate. When either of these bars is less than 10% it will being to flash red.

Bottom right and you will see a little depiction of your creature (Like the PNG in spore. I kindly borrowed a clip art larvae from Google images)
As you can see certain parts of the larva are highlighted red. This is local damage in the area. As you can see both of the back 'fin' things are red. Because these are used for movement, the larva is much slower than full health.

Clicking the right node brings up additional instinct/ability bars. For options things such as infa-red vision if your creature has it, sonar, (on/off switches) or proximity bars. For example if your creature needs UV for Photosynthesis there may be a bar to show how intense the UV is in your area. Toggling them will cause them to appear at bottom left. Because you may become a creature with many different instincts and abilities it may be easier to manage them this way.

The big T is of course the main menu with Save, Load, Exit, Setting and other options. Along the top bar in later stages will be more menus, observer mode toggle and more (Such as tech editor etc).

What'dya think?


~~This post is dedicated to Squito~~

RIP

We should create a GUI concept wiki page as well, because as good as it is, Pezzalis' concept art is quite far from the current GUI concept.


Changes for your GUI, Pezzalis:

I don't think we have or will have any generation meter.

There will be no percentual indicators, no 36% energy.

Health shard will be red, and transparent at full health, and it will get more opaque as the creature gets wounded.

The complex damage window will be bigger and only visibe after clicking the health shard.

All sensing organs will be always on. You can't just turn of hearing or pain when you like, so why would that be possible in the game? There's no need for the bottom circle.

The big T for menu only clutters the screen, as everyone will access the menu by Escape key regardless of including the T or not.

Not bad, Pezz. Could you take a look at the "shattered" GUI concept I put up a while ago and tell me what you think should be used between both of these?

~sciocont wrote:

Not bad, Pezz. Could you take a look at the "shattered" GUI concept I put up a while ago and tell me what you think should be used between both of these?

Do you have a blank form of that concept? Without the notations? I will try to make something with it

P.S Merry Xmas. Here in NZ we are a day ahead so yeah, Christmas has come early for us.

Pezzalis wrote:

~sciocont wrote:

Not bad, Pezz. Could you take a look at the "shattered" GUI concept I put up a while ago and tell me what you think should be used between both of these?

Do you have a blank form of that concept? Without the notations? I will try to make something with it

P.S Merry Xmas. Here in NZ we are a day ahead so yeah, Christmas has come early for us.

I believe I do, but i'll have to do some digging...

Commander Keen wrote:

We should create a GUI concept wiki page as well, because as good as it is, Pezzalis' concept art is quite far from the current GUI concept.


Changes for your GUI, Pezzalis:

I don't think we have or will have any generation meter.

There will be no percentual indicators, no 36% energy.

Health shard will be red, and transparent at full health, and it will get more opaque as the creature gets wounded.

The complex damage window will be bigger and only visibe after clicking the health shard.

All sensing organs will be always on. You can't just turn of hearing or pain when you like, so why would that be possible in the game? There's no need for the bottom circle.

The big T for menu only clutters the screen, as everyone will access the menu by Escape key regardless of including the T or not.

I agree with these comments, and the complex damage system really shouldn't always be displayed. And it is generally agreed on that you click on the health indicator to view it. Nice design and layout, though, Pezzalis.
Are you proposing we remove the T from the GUI completely, Commander Keen?

The Uteen wrote:

Are you proposing we remove the T from the GUI completely, Commander Keen?

Yes, I am. All players will have a keyboard.

Commander Keen wrote:

The Uteen wrote:

Are you proposing we remove the T from the GUI completely, Commander Keen?

Yes, I am. All players will have a keyboard.

That is one thing we can count on.